History of Butlins | Our Beliefs and Colourful Story | Butlins YouTube The Butlin's Story We have a history that scans back 80 years. Take a look at how Butlin’s history unfolds and explore how Billy Butlin started his career as a travelling showman, progressed into holiday camps and grew his business into the iconic brand that it is today. Oh, what delightful times we’ve had! 1930s • Skegness opened on 11 April 1936 and within a year it had doubled in size; it was officially opened by Amy Johnson, the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia. Two years later Billy Butlin's chose Clacton-on-Sea for his second camp. 1940s • To help with the war efforts, Billy’s existing camps were given over to the government. Clacton became an Army camp and Skegness became HMS Royal Arthur. Billy was already building a new resort at Filey but was asked to finish it so that it could be used by the military too, and he was also asked to locate and build another two camps at Ayr and Pwllheli, both of which he bought back at the end of the war.

1950s • Indoor heated pools designed to be used ‘whatever the weather’ opened at Ayr, Clacton, Pwllheli and Skegness. And after holidaying in the Caribbean, Billy sees a gap in the market and opens Butlin's Bahamas! 1960s • A further three resorts opened, at Bognor Regis (1960), Minehead (1962) and Barry Island (1966). The 1960s also saw the famous monorails brought to Skegness and Minehead, and other new innovations being opened on the camps including chairlifts, a pool with underwater viewing windows and revolving bars! 1970s • As people fell in love with holidaying abroad, the specialness of the British seaside became lost and the idea of ‘holiday camps’ faded. The Butlin family sold the business to the Rank Organisation. 1980s • 1980, a very sad start to the year for Butlin's as Billy passes away. His funeral precession is lined with Redcoats. In 1986 new Water Worlds are built at the remaining resorts.

Then in 1989 our Redcoats receive a new uniform designed by Zandra Rhodes. 1990s • The new owners tried to reverse the downturn by building new accommodation and entertainment venues but sadly Mosney, Filey, Clacton and Barry Island all had to be sold, and Ayr and Pwllheli were transferred to Haven. 1999 saw the magnificent and renowned Skyline Pavilions built across all three resorts to cater for the unpredictable Great British weather. 2000s • The new millennium saw Butlin's bought by Bourne Leisure Holdings. In 2003, our beloved Billy Bear character made his debut, and a year later The Spa in Skegness opened. 2005 saw the very exciting completion of our first on-resort hotel, The Shoreline at Bognor Regis, and after it's success our second hotel, the Ocean Hotel, was built in 2009. 2010s • Bognor Regis welcomed it's third hotel, The Wave Hotel in 2012, and a new swimming complex is built at Skegness in 2013.

The following year, a new break designed Just For Tots is launched and Butlin's partners with Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital. Last year our West Lakes chalet village in Minehead was opened, as well as our new Seaside Apartments in Skegness. New breaks such as the Astonishing Family Science Weekend, Horrible Histories and Diversity were introduced. Skegness Skegness Skegness Sections Skegness - Your Memories | Skegness Over The Years | Skegness Postcards | Skegness Photos | Skegness Maps | Skegness Brochures & Entertainment Guides | Multimap Aerial View The camp which started it all, Skegness was the first venture by Billy Butlin into the new and uncharted waters of British holiday camps. Sitting on 200 acres of a former turnip field, the camp has deservedly earned it's place in the hearts and minds of British holiday folklore. Construction began in September 1935 and work progressed throughout the harsh winter. Many problems were encountered, including a distinct lack of funds at one point. Butlin designed the camp himself with many of his sketches and ideas appearing on the backs of cigarette packets.

He said "my plans were for 1,000 people in 600 chalets with electricity, running water, 250 bathrooms, dining and recreational halls. A theatre, a gymnasium, a rhododendron bordered swimming pool with cascades at both ends and a boating lake. In landscaped grounds, there were to be tennis courts, bowling and putting greens and cricket pitches". The camp opened it's doors on 11th April 1936 and was an immediate success, despite many early teething troubles. This was to be a luxury camp, at prices that working people could afford. Three meals a day, and free entertainment from 35 shillings a week (£1.75). The capacity was increased from 500 to around 1,200 during the first season, and at the end of the year another £40,000 was invested to build a dining room, theatre and gymnasium and to increase the capacity to 2,000. The camp eventually went on to accommodate close to 10,000 holiday makers.

On the outbreak of war in 1939 the campers were immediately sent home and the site was taken over by the Royal Navy. The camp became a training establishment and was known as HMS Royal Arthur. The beer garden became the sick bay, the Fortune Teller's Parlour was the dentist's office and the Viennese Dance Hall became the armoury with stacks of rifles. Air raid shelters occupied the former rose gardens and the brightly coloured paintwork disappeared under a dull military scheme. However the camp was respected and looked after by the Navy, despite constant attacks from the Luftwaffe - some 52 bombs landed on it! At the end of the war the site was handed back to Butlin's and work soon commenced on bringing the camp back into life as a holiday resort. It reopened on 11th May 1946, only 6 weeks after leaving the Navy's ownership. In 1948 Billy Butlin opened his own airport next door which dealt with passenger and freight charters, along with local pleasure and sightseeing trips.

A hotel (the Ingoldmells Hotel) and a theatre (the Butlin Theatre, later renamed the Gaiety) were also built adjacent to the main road and were both open to holidaymakers and the general public alike. The chairlift was opened in 1962 and ran from the south side of the camp right up to the north, it was the longest in the Butlin's empire. The first commercial monorail in the UK opened here in 1965. Also in 1962, Ringo Starr and his group Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, arrived to play the summer season at Skegness after two successful years at Pwllheli. During that summer John Lennon and Paul McCartney visited the Skegness camp and met with Ringo to discuss future possibilities. This eventually led to a request to join their band, conveyed in a phone call to the camp from Lennon on Tuesday 14th August. Despite having two weeks left on his contract, Ringo gave his group three days notice and on 18th August 1962 sat down behind the drum-kit of the Beatles. On that night the Fab Four were born.

The camp continued to prosper and in 1987 benefitted from a £14 million investment and improvement scheme, including a change of name to Funcoast World. It was refurbished again in 1999 which included the construction of over 1,000 brand new apartments including some very attractive 'New England' style buildings. The centre now has 7,500 beds and employs 300 full time and 1,000 seasonal staff. It also has its own caravan park which contains over 500 privately owned static vans. One of the original 1936 chalets is now preserved as a Grade 2 listed building. The centre looks set for a long and secure future.

Additional information can be found in our section Skegness over the years If you have any further information or images of the Skegness camp then please e-mail contact@butlins-memories.com A brief history of British Holiday Camps Butlins | Pontins | Warners | Other Camps British Holiday Camps: A Brief History Including a selection of old period adverts Also see our pages on Pontins and Warners When Billy Butlin opened his first site at Skegness in 1936 a number of other camps were already in existence offering similar chalet accommodation, meals and entertainment. He didn't invent the holiday camp idea but simply took it to a much higher level. The Skegness camp offered more than anything ever attempted before and the immense scope of entertainment and attractions, along with the high-class interior features of many of the public buildings, was way larger and more impressive than anything ever seen in Britain. This huge "mega-camp" tradition was continued with all subsequent Butlin sites and the company never had any direct competitors who could offer the same vast range of entertainment. They really were in a league of their own. The first holiday camp had actually been in business for over 40 years when Skegness opened.

Cunningham Young Men's Holiday Camp had opened in the Isle of Man in 1894 and by 1908 had acquired all the familiar characteristics of the later camps. Campers (men only) stayed in row upon row of candle-lit tents and facilities included a heated indoor swimming pool, a selection of shops, a huge dining hall, bank and concert hall. It even had it's own miniature castle which housed the toilets and washrooms! Campers were encouraged to take part in all kinds of activities including sing-songs and team games. Advertised as "The largest most popular holiday resort in the world" the camp remained open until just after the second world war. Turning to England the first major camp was at Caister in Norfolk which opened just after the turn of the century. Others soon appeared nearby and this stretch of coast soon became swamped with an assortment of camps (at one point there were 14 within a ten mile radius). One of these early pioneers was the Potters Camp which first opened in 1924 (later moving to a new site in 1930).

Upon opening it could boast of such luxuries as "brick chalets with running water, electric light and modern toilet facilities....a brick sun-lounge, lavishly furnished with expensive carpets and modern easy chairs". This highly regarded camp is still open today. Another local entrepreneur was 'Maddy' Maddieson who opened a nearby camp at Hemsby, shortly followed by a second near New Romney in Kent. Turning to North Wales we see the appearance of the Golden Sands camp at Rhyl. Opened in 1933 the 20 acre site consisted of tents, chalets and a vast central pavilion housing the dining room and entertainments. Another opened on the other side of town shortly after, known as the Robin Hood Camp - both are still open today. Several camps even opened at inland locations including such sites as the Robinson Crusoe camp in Berkshire which boasted of chalets built high up into the trees! After the success of these early commercial operations, a number of non-profit cooperative camps were established by various trade union groups. The first was the Roseland Summer Camp at Rothesay in Scotland. Opening in 1911 this camp lasted right through until 1974.

Another was the Coventry Cooperative camp at Voryd in Rhyl which also lasted well into the 1970s. Another organisation was the 'Civil Service Holiday Camps' which opened it's first site at Corton in 1924 and it's second at Hayling Island in 1930. The NALGO union also became involved with the opening of a camp at Croyde Bay in Devon (1931) followed soon after by a much larger site at Cayton Bay near Scarborough. Both boasted of "waterproof" chalets along with recreation rooms, concert halls, swimming pools and a whole host of daytime and evening activities. Cayton was sold in 1976 but Croyde Bay is still thriving and now owned by UINSON. All this activity therefore happened before the first Butlins camp had even been built. There were many others too numerous to mention but the basic concept and idea had been pretty well developed by the time Billy Butlin became involved. After the war the holiday camp boom reached new heights (helped somewhat by the cheap availability of old wartime military bases) and a couple of other entrepreneurs soon became household names, Harry Warner and Fred Pontin.

In fact Warner had opened his first camp in 1931, some five years before Butlin entered the scene. Pontin got started in 1946. Additional info on both companies can be found in our relevant Pontins and Warners pages. By the early 1960s there was a total of around 100 registered holiday camps in the UK. However Butlins were still the market leader and the total attendance of all the other camps combined didn't even come close to the one million plus holiday makers that headed to Butlins every year. The industry saw some major changes throughout the '70s and '80s and many of the old camps disappeared. But an interesting fact is that most of today's survivors can trace their origins back to those early pioneers. Most are unrecognisable today and caravans have replaced many, if not all, of the old chalets.

We're always interested in receiving scans of photos or postcards (old or new) from any UK holiday camp for future use on this website Below are a couple of postcards dated 1952 showing the Prestatyn Holiday Camp which was designed and built by the LMS Railway & Thomas Cook in 1939. Noted for its wonderful architecture the camp was later sold to Pontins and renamed 'Tower Beach' but was eventually closed in the 1980s. Bygone Butlins. Butlins Holiday Camp history. Butlins past memories. Bringing back all your Butlins Holiday Camp Memories . Welcome to BygoneButlins.com, the home of Butlins memories, with recollections of happy times spent at Butlins holiday camps. Here at Bygonebutlins.com our aim is to give an insight into how Butlin's has changed over the years and is still changing to this day. The result should be a regularly updated site, as lets face it Butlin's memories can be anything from the 29th September 1899 to yesterday.

Contact Bygone Butlins if you feel you have any Butlins memories to contribute to this site and hopefully between us we can produce a web site full of Butlins history and memories, along with Butlins memorabilia. There are hundreds of ex Redcoats out there so if any of you wish to share Butlins nostalgia, we would love to hear from you. Sir Billy Butlin (Sir)William Heygate Edmund Colborne Butlin (1899–1980), Billy paid just 30shillings (£1:50) at Lock's Yard, Bedminster for a hoop-la stall at a traveling fair. . . and his multi-million pound Rags to Riches story began. Born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1899. He came to live in Bristol as a little boy when his mother married a Bristol gas worker. He went to St Mary Redcliffe School for a while before emigrating to Canada. After service with the Canadian army during the first World War, he worked his passage across the Atlantic to Liverpool, was paid £5 and walked 160 miles back to Bristol to join the Marshall Hill fair at its Bedminster winter base.

Billy made his hoop-la pedestals the easiest to 'hoop', gave out prizes more quickly than anyone . . . and took 10 times the profits of his stunned rivals with their penny pinching attractions as he triumphantly toured the West Country on the traveling fair circuit. He went from hoop-la stalls to amusement parks to zoos and, in 1935, to his first holiday camp in Ingoldmells, Skegness, an idea he'd long since dreamed about after remembering a rotten holiday on the Bristol Channel when he'd been thrown out of his lodgings by a seaside landlady who wouldn't allow 'guests' to stay during the day. Give the punters a fair deal, a roof over their heads and amusements, and they would flock in just as they had to his Bedminster hoop-la stall. And, of course, it worked ----------------------------------- Butlins Butlin's in the 50s and 60s Billy Butlin opened his first camp at Skegness in 1936. However, it is the 50s and 60s that most people think of as the heyday of Butlin's and the British holiday camp.

Butlin's moved with the times in the 60s. The camps boasted a host of decidedly modern features, such as monorails and glass sided swimming pools. Glass sided swimming pool at Filey This postcard shows the glass sided swimming pool at Filey. Here the customers at a cafï¿½ are enjoying the novelty of being able to watch the bathers from an unusual viewpoint. Dry ski slope at Minehead Skiing at Butlin's! It might seem strange, but you could even go skiing at Butlin's; Minehead had this dry ski slope. Winter sports did not have the popularity that they enjoy today, for the majority of people in the UK, a holiday in Spain was adventurous. The ski slope at Butlin's would have been the nearest most people would ever get to a skiing holiday. Butlin's Bognor Regis Butlin's Bognor Regis (left) was a new addition to the Billy Butlin empire in the 60s. A long protracted negotiation with Bognor Regis Town Council finally resulted in Billy Butlin moving from a fairground close to the town centre to a fully fledged holiday camp close to the seafront.

This shot of the pool (left) shows the coloured umbrellas that were part of the Butlin trade mark. Butlin's, Skegness Butlin's first camp at Skegness was still going strong in the sixties. Holidaymakers enjoy the gardens at Skegness (right). A colourful garden was a very important part of a 60s holiday resort. Butlin was aware of this and made his camps into mini holiday resorts in themselves, ensuring that holidaymakers enjoyed beautiful gardens. An interesting comment written on the back of a postcard sent from Butlin's in 1969 reads: "The girls seem to by enjoying themselves here and found themselves a couple of boys last night. We don't even see them at breakfast!" More on Butlins This site is a celebration of Butlins and the Redcoats and staff who worked there. There is a reunion planned for Butlins Redcoats on 23 May 2008 at Billy Butlin's first camp at Skegness.

THE DARK SIDE OF BILLY BUTLIN - Mirror Online News THE DARK SIDE OF BILLY BUTLIN EXCLUSIVE: Holiday camp king carried a cut-throat razor for protection and used lure of sex among the chalets to pull in punters. Share Get daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Could not subscribe, try again laterInvalid Email HE WAS the genial genius who brought knobbly knees and glamorous granny contests to Britain. Billy Butlin became a byword for wholesome family fun when he revitalised the leisure scene with his first holiday camp 70 years ago. But there was a more sinister side to the man who promised innocent amusement to 1930s holidaymakers. Behind its jolly Hi-de-Hi! image, the Butlins empire flourished on a mixture of sex and violence. Little did the chalet guests know that Butlin was forced to carry a cut-throat razor because he'd made so many enemies on his way to the top. And female staff at the camps were encouraged to sell sexual favours on the side in a fashion much more red lamp than red coat.

Meanwhile single women were targeted as prime customers - for the entrepreneur knew a reputation for bed-hopping among the chalets would pull in the punters. Butlin, who was knighted in the 60s, came from a family of fairground owners, a notoriously rough business where violence was often the first resort when dealing with the competition. His nephew Vernon Jenkins remembered: "Billy was a man who associated with potentially violent people in his early days. "He was always afraid of retribution, so he carried his cut-throat razor in his top pocket all the time. They were gangsters, the lot of them." The pioneer was also among the first to realise, even in the 1930s, that sex sells. Former Redcoat Peter Everett said: "At prize-giving each Friday a ram's head would be awarded to the Redcoat of The Week. "But in reality it was for being sh****r of the week. "They had to supply a piece of the woman's under-wear as proof of the conquest." There was even a points system, with 10 points for scoring with the holiday princess, 15 for the glamorous granny and 20 for the manager's wife.

Butlins expert Tony Cook says: "Sir Billy's holiday camps provided innocent fun in postwar Britain and built a reputation for wholesome family entertainment. "But the campers and their Redcoat entertainers enjoyed the seamy side of life, too. Britain was a staid society in the 40s and 50s, but Billy knew many people wanted no-strings sex. "So he made it as easy as possible, making sure there were plenty of single women staying there. It's been described to me by some who worked there as a giant bonking shop." Despite - or maybe because of - the camps' seedy side, Billy Butlin hit on a money-spinning formula. Born in Cape Town in 1899, the man later described as a rogue, charmer and ladies' man grew up in South Africa and Canada before coming to London as a young man and starting out as a fairground worker. His father, also called William Butler, was the son of a clergyman but his mother, Bertha Hill, was a member of a family of travelling showmen. Their marriage was considered something of a social disgrace in Leonard Stanley, Gloucester, where they lived. So Billy's parents emigrated to South Africa.

When the marriage failed, his mother returned to England with Billy and rejoined her family in Bristol. But then she abandoned him, remarrying and emigrating to Canada in 1911. The boy was looked after by a widow in Bristol for a couple of years before his mother and stepfather asked him to come to them in Toronto. Tony says: "He was very unhappy at school in Canada and was always being mocked because of his English accent, so he left school at 14. "He got a job as a messenger boy at Eaton's, Toronto's largest department store. One of the best aspects of working for the company was that he was able to visit their summer camp, which gave him the idea for his Butlins empire." Billy was a runner for the Canadian Army in the First World War, and then returned to the UK. In 1936 he decided to build his first holiday camp in Skegness, combining the facilities he had seen at the camps in Canada, including swimming, entertainment and funfairs. His business was given a huge boost by the Second World War.

Tony says: "The Ministry of Defence used his holiday camps to train soldiers during the war, and they paid him to build several more. "But once the war was over he had a deal where he could buy back the camps at 40 per cent of their value and convert them back into holiday camps. "He made a huge profit. The holidaymakers were coming in as the troops were marching out. He also bought 99 per cent of Britain's fairground equipment during the war when it was worthless, so he had a monopoly when people wanted to have fun again." He befriended members of the Royal Family and was knighted in 1964, 12 years Before marrying Lady Butlin, then Sheila Devine, his third wife. Lady Butlin strongly denies the stories about her late husband, who died in 1980. She says: "These claims are untrue, but the libel laws do not protect the reputation of the dead, nor their families. "Billy did incredible work for charities, but they do not mention how he gave away millions." MUCH of his success sprang from his simple yet innovative concept of "a week's holiday for a week's pay".

A week's full board, complete with free entertainment and three square meals a day, cost #3 at the height of the season. When he placed his first newspaper ad there were more than 10,000 inquiries. Butlins is famous for its family games, and the knobbly knees contest was once judged by comedy legends Laurel and Hardy. Sir Billy came up with the idea for the glamorous granny contests when he bumped into actress Marlene Dietrich in America in 1964 and was stunned to find she was a gran. The Butlins archives state: "Upon his return to England he instructed Lt Col Basil Brown, Director of Entertainment, to incorporate a weekly competition at all the main Holiday Centres." At the time there was only room for 1,000 guests. But today more than a million holidaymakers a year flock to Butlins resorts in Skegness, Lincolnshire, Minehead in Somerset and Bognor Regis, West Sussex. The Redcoats were a new holiday concept at the time and they become a national institution. Ex-Redcoats include the late Benny Hill, Des O'Connor, Sir Cliff Richard and Jimmy Tarbuck.

The camps have always been a magnet for new pop acts, and now they attract chart-toppers such as Will Young, the Sugababes, McFly and Girls Aloud. Whatever the truth about Sir Billy's lifestyle, his cheap-and-cheerful legacy lives on. damien.fletcher@mirror.co.uk Most Read Most Recent Most Read Most Recent Billy Butlin (Entrepreneur) - Pics, Videos, Dating, & News Billy Butlin Male Born Sep 29, 1899 Sir William Heygate Edmund Colborne "Billy" Butlin, was a British, South Africa-born entrepreneur whose name is synonymous with the British holiday camp. Although holiday camps such as Warner's existed in one form or another before Butlin opened his first in 1936, it was Butlin who turned holiday camps into a multi-million pound industry and an important aspect of British culture.… Read More related links The Insider: How To Tackle An Old House The Independent Google News - Sep 03, 2011 'The couple have chairs once owned by the Beatles, <mark>Billy Butlin</mark>&#39;s Deco bathroom and 1940s department-store lights.

&quot;Not stuff you&#39;d think would all work in a Georgian house â like Mr Blobby!&quot; says Antoni. &quot;But he fits in beautifully because he&#39;s loved' Edwardian Elegance, Then A Home To Popular Music Portsmouth News Google News - Aug 29, 2011 'After the war, in 1946 <mark>Billy Butlin</mark> bought The Savoy Cafe and promised a new lease of life. Somewhere around 1953, Pier Mansions was added to the complex, and together the buildings became known as The Savoy Buildings. It was run by a wily manager,' Good Things Do Get Better With Age... Portsmouth News Google News - Aug 27, 2011 'While Penguin were founding their book publishing empire and Aer Lingus learning to fly, a certain <mark>Billy Butlin</mark> was building the first-ever Butlins holiday camp in Skegness.

This young entrepreneur had already dabbled in the amusement' è±åè¶ ç´å¯è±ªå³¶ æ°è¯ç¶² Google News - Aug 16, 2011 '...

äº¦ä¾èªæ¾¤è¥¿å³¶çä¸åé¡¯èµ«å®¶åº­;å³¶ä¸å± ä½çåæµå æ¬é»å½±007ä¸­ä½å£«é¦çç¬¬ä¸ä»»æ®æ¼è ç¾ åâ§æ©ç¾(Roger Moore)ãF1èåè³½è»æNigel Mansellãåº¦åæçåµå§äººåé åºææè <mark>Billy Butlin</mark>ãè±å�

�èåä½å®¶Jack HigginsãBBC èåç¯ç®ä¸»æäººAlan WICKERãé«ç¾å¤«çæIan WOOSNAM ç­ã' Learn about the memorable moments in the evolution of Billy Butlin.

CHILDHOOD 1899 Birth Born on September 29, 1899. 1910 10 Years Old In his autobiography, Butlin recorded that his mother remarried and emigrated to Canada around 1910 and passenger lists of the period show Bertha travelling to Toronto via Montreal in 1912. … Read More For two years Butlin, and his cousin Jimmy Hill boarded with a widow in Bristol. Read Less TEENAGE 1913 13 Years Old In December 1913 his mother returned and married Charles Robotham in Swindon. … Read More Butlin's mother and stepfather then asked him to join them in Toronto, Canada. He was unhappy at school in Canada, mocked because of his English accent, and he left school at fourteen. Eventually he got a job as a messenger boy at Eatons, Torontoâs largest department store. One of the best aspects of working for the company was that he was able to visit their summer camp, which gave him his first taste of a real holiday, indeed a taste of what was to become a very big part of his life.

Later he transferred to Eatons advertising department where he drew black and white adverts, while studying at night school twice a week. Read Less Show Less In 1915, during World War I, Butlin volunteered somewhat reluctantly for service in the Canadian Army. … Read More Knowing that the army already had a full quota of despatch riders, Butlin intended to volunteer for service in that category in the knowledge that although his application would be declined he would still receive an "I volunteered" badge for his actions without actually having to serve. While applying, Butlin forgot to tell the recruiter of this intention, and was consequently allocated to the Canadian Expeditionary Force which was taking part in the fighting along the Western Front. Read Less He was subsequently posted to the 170th (Mississauga Horse) Battalion on 29 December 1915. … Read More His attestation papers give his date of birth as 1898 (rather than the actual 1899), allowing him to enlist although only 15 at the time. The papers give his occupation as a "Suit Case Maker". The papers also show, as Butlin himself later stated, that he had been selected to serve as a bugler.

Before his deployment to Europe, Butlin transferred to the 216th (Bantams) Battalion, with which he was sent to England. Once in England, he was stationed at Sandgate near Folkestone before being deployed to France. In France, the 216th became part of the 3rd Canadian Division which took part in the second battle of Vimy Ridge, as well the battles at Ypres and Arras, and the second battle of Cambrai; while in France, Butlin served as a stretcher-bearer.<br /><br /> After the war, Butlin returned to England aboard a cattle ship, arriving in England with only Â£5 (2011:Â£) capital. He made his way to Tiverton in Devon where his uncle, Marshall Hill, was a well known showman. He purchased a hoopla stall from Hill, and ran it successfully. In later interviews Butlin claimed that he accidentally sawed the corners off his hoopla blocks, but some observers such as The Sunday Herald report that he did it intentionally, displaying "logic and business sense".

In either case, Butlin's actions allowed patrons to have a much higher success rate (approximately 3 in 5 for each ring) and brought him more custom than his fellow stall holders. Read Less TWENTIES 1925 25 Years Old … By contrast an average game would have odds of approximately 1 in 9 for each ring or 1 in 3 for a 3-ring game. Butlin's stall gave him less profit per customer than his competitors, but the increase in business gave him a bigger overall profit than theirs. He moved to London and set up a successful stall in Olympia outside the Christmas Circus run by Bertram Mills. By the end of the season Butlin had been so successful that he could afford to bring his mother (by then widowed) to the UK from Canada. <br /><br />Over the next few years Butlin toured the country with the Hills Travelling Fair, leaving his mother to run the Olympia site. Soon he had his own travelling fair visiting country fairs such as Barnstaple. Read Less Butlin opened some permanently sited stalls in 1925, in Barry Island, Wales.

1927 27 Years Old In 1927 he leased a piece of land from the Earl of Scarbrough in the seaside town of Skegness. … Read More On this land, he set up an amusement park with hoopla stalls, a tower slide, a haunted house, and a scenic railway. Read Less 1928 28 Years Old In 1928, Butlin secured an exclusive licence to sell Dodgem cars in Europe. … Read More The first Dodgems in Britain were available in his park at Skegness; other showmen bought Dodgems from Butlin. Read Less THIRTIES 1930 - 1935 3 More Events 1930 30 Years Old His activities in Skegness continued to expand, and by 1930 included a zoo featuring lions, zebras and an African village. 1932 32 Years Old Butlin opened a similar fairground in 1932, in Bognor Regis, on the corner of the Esplanade, named the Recreation Shelter.

… Read More The following year he opened a zoo nearby, which featured polar bears, kangaroos and monkeys. At around the same time he also opened an amusement park in Bognor's neighbouring village of Littlehampton, known as Butlin's Park.<br /><br /> In the 1930s Butlin had amusement parks in Mablethorpe (opened 1928), Hayling Island (1931), Felixstowe (1931), Southsea (1931) and on the Isle of Man. He continued to operate his winter fair at Olympia during this time and soon added the winter fairs at Waverley Hall in Edinburgh and at the Kelvin Hall in Glasgow. Read Less 1935 35 Years Old By 1935 most of his existing parks had zoos attached to them, providing another source of revenue. … Read More Butlin's funfair and amusement park business continued to expand into the post-war period.

In 1938 he gained the sole contract to supply amusements to the Empire Exhibition in Glasgow and after the war, he continued to open amusement parks such as the one at Sheerness.<br /><br /> For some time Butlin had nurtured the idea of a holiday camp. He had seen the way landladies in seaside resorts would, sometimes literally, push families out of the lodgings between meals, regardless of the weather. Butlin toyed with the idea of providing holiday accommodation that encouraged holiday-makers to stay on the site and even provided entertainment for them between meals. Read Less 1936 36 Years Old He opened his first Butlin's camp at Ingoldmells, near Skegness, on 11 April 1936 (Easter eve). … Read More It was officially opened by Amy Johnson, the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia. An advertisement costing Â£500 (2011:Â£) was placed in the Daily Express, announced the opening of the camp, inviting the public to book for a week's holiday.

The advertisement offered holidays with three meals a day and free entertainment with a week's full board cost anything from 35 shillings to Â£3 (2011:Â£), according to the time of year. When the camp opened, Butlin realised that his guests were not engaging with activities in the way he had planned; most kept to themselves, and others looked bored. He asked Norman Bradford (who was engaged as an engineer constructing the camp) to take on the duty of entertaining the guests, which he did with a series of ice breakers and jokes. By the end of the night the camp was buzzing and the Butlin's atmosphere was born. From that point on, entertainment was the very heart of Butlins and Bradford became the first of the Butlin's Redcoats. The same night Butlin decided that for his camp to work he would require many more people to carry out the same job as Bradford, and the role of Redcoat was conceived. Read Less Show Less On 30 January 1937, Butlin turned his business into a limited company "Butlin's ltd". … Read More Butlin took the decision to form the company as a means to raise finance for his new camps.

On 8 February 1937 the company published its prospectus ahead of a public sale of shares. When the shares became available, they sold out entirely in five minutes.<br /><br /> With the outbreak of the Second World War, both the Clacton and Skegness camps were requisitioned by the War Office for use as training camps. The ministry needed further camps, and contracted Butlin to build them. Butlin agreed, on the condition that he could purchase the sites when the war was over, to use as holiday camps. The ministry agreed, and Filey (1945), Pwllheli and Ayr (both in 1947), opened after the war. As Butlin was dealing with other sites, he asked his business competitor, Harry Warner, to complete the construction of Filey. Read Less In his autobiography, Butlin refers to Clacton as his second camp; however, in 1937, the architect Harold Ridley Hooper, who had drawn the plans for the camp at Skegness, created plans on behalf of Butlins ltd, for a second camp at Dovercourt, in Essex.

… Read More In the winter of 1938, the camp at Dovercourt was requisitioned by the government for housing children evacuated from Germany by the Kindertransport programme. Read Less Writers and speakers discussing that programme, such as Anthony Grenville and Ela Kaczmarska, claim that the camp had been constructed by Butlin and operated as a Butlin's camp for the 1937â1938 season, Kaczmarska also suggests that it had closed in the summer of 1938 (the same time the Clacton camp opened.) recollections of the refugees suggest that by December 1938 the camp was being run by Harry Warner, whose company Butlin was on the board of. … Read More At around the same time Butlin's advertised Dovercourt as "associated with Butlin's" and into the early 1940s Butlin was putting on rail packages with LNER to the Dovercourt camp.<br /><br /> Butlin proposed a new holiday camp at Clacton-on-Sea in Essex in 1936. Both the council and the local association of hotels were against the idea, as were the boarding house keepers.

To persuade them, Butlin took the members of the council to Skegness to see how the people there appreciated their holiday camp. The councillors were soon won over when they learnt that the local traders in Skegness had seen an initial dip in custom after its construction followed by a rise as campers had visited the town and seasonal workers had come to spend their pay. Once approved by the council, construction began and the camp opened in 1938. Read Less 1939 39 Years Old Butlin had purchased his first hotel in 1939, the Thatched Barn in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. … Read More Like his camps, it was requisitioned (this time by the SOE) before he could develop it.<br /><br /> During the war years, a number of Butlin's camps were used as Royal Navy shore establishments. Skegness became HMS Royal Arthur, a training establishment for petty officers; Pwllheli became HMS Glendower, and Ayr became HMS Scotia. Filey became RAF Hunmanby Moor and Clacton, after being considered for use as a prisoner of war camp, was later used as a training site for the Pioneer Corps.

Butlin was recruited by the Ministry of Supply and asked to look at the causes of low morale amongst the workers in Britain's munitions factories. His first stop was at the Royal Ordnance Factory, Chorley, where he found that the camouflaged huts and barbed wire fences used to house workers gave them the feeling of being interned. Using the knowledge and experience he had gained in setting up his holiday camps, Butlin was able to devise activities and systems to boost morale, which led to his appointment as Director General of Hostels. In this position, Butlin introduced games and entertainment similar to those used in his holiday camps. These included: whist drives, amateur dramatics, theatrical productions and cinema. Read Less FORTIES 1943 43 Years Old In 1943, he encouraged workers to continue taking their holiday entitlement but to do so at home, arranging various travelling fairs to visit towns on their "holiday week". … Read More Butlin's appointment to this role gave cause for concern in some quarters, with questions being asked of the under-secretary, Harold Macmillan, about the nature of his involvement.

However the appointment was a voluntary one with no salary or expenses and had been made after the consideration of other suitable candidates.<br /><br /> Late in the war, during the Allied advance through western Europe following the Normandy landings, Butlin was approached by General Bernard Montgomery, who asked him to help set up leave centres for the 21st Army Group. Starting in Brussels, the "21 Club" concept quickly spread through western Europe, providing entertainment and relaxation for servicemen and women. Read Less 1944 44 Years Old In 1944, Butlin was awarded the MBE for his wartime service to the Ministry of Supply. 1946 46 Years Old After the war, it became apparent that most holiday camps in Britain had been damaged by troop occupation, and the situation was so bad that questions were raised in parliament. Other than Clacton, the Butlins camps were relatively unscathed, and even Clacton, which had been damaged by troop occupation, re-opened in early 1946. … Read More In the post-war boom Butlin saw opportunities on foreign shores.

Read Less Show Less He opened camps at Mosney, in the soon to be Republic of Ireland, in 1948 and on Grand Bahama, in 1949. … Read More In most ways Mosney was identical to the existing successful camps, but in Ireland this was something that was seen to be feared, rather than embraced. A number of complaints appeared in the Catholic Standard, warning that holiday camps were an English idea that was not desirable in Catholic Ireland. Like the other camps, Mosney was designed to have a church and reassurances were given that it would be a Catholic chapel with a resident priest. Reassurances were also given that Irish nationals would have priority over British tourists in booking holidays. Read Less In July 1948 the camp was finally opened by William Norton, the Minister for Social Welfare, and it operated successfully as a Butlin's camp until the early 1980s. … Read More A more ambitious plan by Butlin was thought up on a trip to the Bahamas in 1946. Seeing potential for a camp in warmer climes, he formed a company under the chairmanship of Sir Bede Edmund Hugh Clifford and bought land in Grand Bahama.

Butlin also purchased the Princess hotel in Bermuda and the Fort Montagu beach hotel in Nassau. The camp was intended to be complete and open on New Years Day of 1950. After an investment of US$5 million (2011:Â£) the camp opened, still only partially complete, in the winter of 1949. To celebrate its opening, Butlin ran a mystery flight, where guests, who had paid $129 (2011:Â£) each, were taken on a flight to the resort without being informed in advance. However Butlin did not remain celebrating for long; he required a further $2.25 million (2011:Â£) to complete the camp, and to make matters worse American tourists were not used to the holiday camp mentality so the venture held little interest. In an attempt to save the camp, Butlin sold the Hotel leases to an American firm. By November 1950, the subsidiary company handling the Caribbean resort was ordered to be wound up by a court. Butlin admitted defeat and focused his efforts back in Europe.

In the late 1940s Butlin had successfully opened hotels outside the Skegness and Ayr camps, so he now saw his opportunity to expand into this market. Read Less FIFTIES 1959 59 Years Old … Butlin remained close to his mother, both in following her to Canada and in arranging for her to come home after the death of his stepfather. She died in 1934 and never saw his first holiday camp. By contrast, Butlin makes no mention in his biography of his father after returning from Canada. Public records from South Africa show that his father remained in Cape Town for the rest of his life, dying in 1954. <br /><br />In the 1920s while staying in Tiverton in Devon, and working with Marshall Hill, Butlin met Doris "Dolly" Mabel Cheriton (born 1898), whose family owned the local fish and chip shop; the couple were married in 1927. Dolly gave her name as "Dorothy" on signing the register, and her death in 1958 was also registered in the name "Dorothy".

However, by the early 1930s the marriage had broken down and they had separated. Soon after, Butlin met and fell in love with Norah Faith Cheriton (Dolly's niece, born 1914). Dolly refused to grant Butlin a divorce. It was not until Dolly's death in 1958 that he and Norah were free to marry. Read Less Butlin was surprised by Eamonn Andrews for This Is Your Life on his wedding day in 1959. … Read More The second marriage lasted only a few months, as Butlin had already fallen in love with Sheila Edwina Devine. This time it was Norah who refused to grant divorce. Read Less LATE ADULTHOOD

Question: Where was Billy Butlin's first holiday camp
Answer: Skegness